This recipe is so simple but also absolutely delicious. Sautéed scallops with mushrooms & spinach sauce and served Seeds of Change: Cuban Style Rice, equally simple to make and super yummy.
A whole package of baby spinach (pre-washed and yes, very lazy on my part but also very convenient!) and sliced baby bella mushrooms (about 8 medium size) tossed into a wok with 1 Tbsp butter, melted and sizzling, on high heat.
Cooked just long enough for the leaves to wilt
VERY IMPORTANT: Put a colander over a bowl in order to catch ALL of the liquids – Pour wilted spinach and mushrooms into colander and press to get as much liquid out as possible. Keep the spinach and mushrooms warm while you cook the scallops.
I have decided that I absolutely Love scallops and I’m sad that they are always so expensive. Heated 2 tsp peanut oil (Use a nut oil because it can cook at a very high temperature without smoking/burning) in a skillet at a high temperature and added in the scallops (which had been rinsed and patted dry and sprinkled with freshly ground black pepper) Sautéed for approximately 2 minutes without disturbing (you want them to “seal” and form a bit of a crust) then added 1 Tbsp of butter. (Another benefit to using the peanut oil, the butter does not instantly burn at the high temp because it is somewhat tempered by the oil) As the butter melted, sprinkled more freshly ground pepper and flipped the scallops.
Gorgeous, if I do say so myself – Cooked for another 3 or 4 minutes.
As the scallops were cooking, put the spinach-mushroom juice back into the wok and turned up the heat, added 1 Tbsp of butter and let the sauce reduce. Added a good couple “shakes” of nutmeg (probably 1-2 tsp) and more freshly ground black pepper. (The recipe calls for salt but I never add additional salt to seafood dishes – besides not needing the additional sodium in our diet, I just don’t think seafood needs it.) Continued to reduce until the scallops were done and I have to say – don’t skip this step – the sauce really adds lovely flavor and just steps the dish up one more level.
Plated with the rice, which was also a big hit and something I will try again (along with some of their other rice mixtures). I Love scallops and have done them with spinach before but there are just wonderful touches to this dish (probably all that butter) that made it seem super special for your basic Fish Monday dinner.